The troubled real estate market has created a buyers’ market for mortgage loan portfolios, RMBS and CMBS, foreclosed real estate, real estate in corporate turnaround situations, equity and debt of housing-related retailers, and equity, debt and assets of distressed builders. Hear a panel of experts share their insights on market timing and the importance of proactive planning to achieve investment success.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:30 PM ET Cost: FREE Register Now >

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Ford

A record 1.8 million hotel rooms in 10,781 projects are in the global construction pipeline through the first half of 2008, according to a first-time comprehensive count by Portsmouth, NH-based Lodging Econometrics. The report further states that 41% of total pipeline projects and 46% of total rooms are already under construction, likely causing new hotel openings to accelerate in the next two years.

Rapid growth in hotel development has been spurred by a broad range of factors, from the rise of globalization and interconnectedness of economies and markets, to unprecedented availability of capital, migration of people from rural communities to urban centers and an explosion of travel and tourism, Lodging Econometrics states. “Combined, this has resulted in the greatest real estate construction and infrastructure boom in history,” says Patrick Ford, the firm’s president.

The US has the largest share of the world hotel pipeline with 43%, followed by Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. However, the impact of the current credit crisis and economic slowdown on developer sentiment could lead to a possible cresting of new openings after 2010, Lodging Econometrics reports.